‘Hit men’ kill 2 cops, leave third body

Dec 28, 2012, 03.58AM ISTTNN[ Nitesh Kumar Sharma ]

JAIPUR: In a bizarre case, two unidentified men shot dead two policemen even as cops found another body in a car left behind by the assailants. The deceased cops had rounded the duo from a village on charges of loitering and were taking them to Jhunjhunu's Malsisar police station in a jeep on Thursday evening. The accused allegedly shot the cops, got off the police jeep and escaped into the nearby fields.

Later, a police team which had seized a UP-registration car from the area found a dead body inside it while towing it to the police station. The body is suspected to be a restaurant and bar owner in Haryana's Rewari region who had been complaining to the Haryana excise department and police officials against some local liquor mafias.

It is suspected that the liquor mafias hired some UP-based goons to eliminate the bar owner. The criminals were looking for a place to dispose of the body when some villagers got suspicious and informed the police about them, following which a team was sent to round them up.

SP, Jhunjhunu Kailash Bishnoi told TOI that some residents of Bajla village called up the Malsisar police station informing the policemen about two men who were wandering around asking for a deserted place in the region.

"As the two men were drunk, the villagers got suspicious. The police station in-charge Bhagwana Ram rushed a team comprising of head constables Bajrang Lal and Omprakash Yadav and another constable along with a police jeep driver to the village. They found the two men and rounded them up," said the officer.

There was some negligence in the matter as the policemen who rounded up the criminals did not check them for any weapons. The criminals obviously used these weapons to open fire at the cops.

Bishnoi said that while the police driver Santosh Kumar and the two head constables sat in the police jeep along with the two criminals, another constable drove the suspects' black Ford with a UP registration. When the jeep reached the Malsisar petrol pump about 1km from the police station, one of the criminals took out a gun and fired at Bajrang Lal and Omprakash. Both sustained bullet injuries on their necks.

The driver Santosh Kumar also tried to return the fire but by that time both the criminals has escaped under cover of darkness. The driver then took the two policemen to a hospital where they were declared brought dead.

The police found some documents from the body hidden in the Ford. "According to the papers, the deceased man is Pawan Sharma, a resident of Bhiwani in Haryana and a restaurant-cum-bar owner in Rewari. We found some other documents that show he had been making complaints against some liquor mafias," said the officer.

DGP Harish Chandra Meena said that the police have almost identified the two criminals and launched a massive hunt for them. The car has been traced to a person in Meerut, UP. About six SIM cards have been put on surveillance for further investigation.

The deceased policemen — Bajrang Lal and Omprakash Yadav - were in their mid-forties and were residents of Doomra village in Jhunjhunu's Navalgarh and Shimla village of Khetari region respectively.